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黄石國家公園的高原湖泊，北美最大的高山湖，一泓清澈的湖水，波光粼粼，群山環抱、水域遼闊，湖水浩渺，氣象萬千，令人心曠神怡。

Two views of the large Yellowstone Lake which is the headwater of the substantial sized Yellowstone River

Many waterfowl (probably goldeneyes) on the large Yellowstone Lake. We also saw a bald eagle flying along the edge of the lake and the nearby forest.

The Yellowstone River flows out of the large Yellowstone Lake on the right side of this wooden Fishing Bridge. Then the river flows north from this Fishing Bridge through the beautiful Upper Falls, the Lower Falls, and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone as described in Part I of this report. Then the Yellowstone River flows north through Gardiner into Montana. In Montana, the Yellowstone River turns northeast and flows several hundred miles across Montana into North Dakota where the Yellowstone River merged into the Missouri River. The merged Missouri River flows south into Missouri and at St. Louis in Missouri, the Missouri River merged into the mighty Mississippi River which flows south into Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans.

On August 28, 2008, after we finished touring Theodor Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, we drove west on Interstate Highway I-94 following the Yellowstone River all the way from North Dakota through Montana to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The scenery along I-94 following Yellowstone River is also beautiful and may be presented later on.

A picture of me (Sing Lin) at the Continental Divide on the roadside in Yellowstone National Park at the elevation of 8,391 feet above sea level. The Yellowstone River is on the east side of the Continental Divide and the river eventually flows east and south into the Gulf of Mexico.

On the other hand, the Snake River also originates from the Jackson Lake in this general area but is on the west side of the Continental Divide as described in my Travelogue web page at:

After flowing south through the Grand Teton National Park, the Snake River flows west through Idaho and merged into the mighty Columbia River in Washington State. Then, the Columbia River flows west through Oregon into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake River in Idaho and Washington State is also very beautiful and we may tour those scenic areas along the Snake River in the future.

In last summer (August 2007), we toured the Columbia Lake on the west side of Canadian Rockies as the headwater of the Columbia River. We also drove on the beautiful valleys following the Columbia River on our return trip from Canadian Rockies to Seattle Airport in Washington State as described in my Travelogue web page at:

In addition to the famous Old Faithful Geyser, there are more than 500 geysers in the Yellowstone National Park. Most of these geysers have boardwalks for tourists to get close to watch them. As one drives around in Yellowstone National Park, one can see steams coming up from various geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mud pots here and there all over the places.

成群的麋鹿。

After touring the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, we saw a group of female elks at dusk slightly north of the Canyon Village in central Yellowstone National Park.

熱氣繚繞， 沸騰滾燙翻滾的熱泉。

Closer views of some of geysers

However, these still pictures do not convey well the actions and the sounds of these geysers . So, I also took some short movie clips of several kinds of geysers in action and uploaded them to the following YouTube website:

When the movie clip on the following YouTube website is finished, remember to press the F11 key on your keyboard to get back to your normal screen with various tool bars so that you can get back to this Travelogue web page on Part II of Yellowstone.

This movie clip includes Eruptions of two geysers, Mud Volcano, a pulsing jet geyser, intermittent geyser, a pulsing geyser, etc.

A corner of Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

One of many boardwalks and geyser basins for many tourists to see many different kinds, shapes and colors of geysers all over the huge Yellowstone National Park. According to geologists, the entire Yellowstone National Park with so many active geysers all over the places at elevation of 8,000 feet is a huge caldera of a super-volcano. It is a land of fire.

一片濛濛的熱霧裡的沸騰河， 一幅水火交融的奇特畫面。

Firehole River is one of several rivers that collect the steaming hot spring waters coming out from many geysers in addition to the natural water in and near Yellowstone National Park.

The Firehole River is world famous among anglers for its pristine beauty and healthy brown, brook, and rainbow trout. These fish in the river attract not only anglers but also fishing birds such as ospreys (fish hawks) to come to catch fish as shown in the following pictures that I took.

This osprey was flying and hovering over the Firehole River and was looking down for a fish to catch. I was very busy using my digital camera to take action photos of this beautiful osprey in flight. But there was an old lady (with foreign accent) who was standing next to me and was very busy asking me repeatedly "What is that?". It was a very busy place with several geysers and many tourists in action around us. I was not quite sure about what she was asking. So, I replied "What is what?" while I was still busy taking pictures of the osprey in flight. Then the lady pointed her finger at the big bird in the air and repeated the question: "What is that bird?". I replied "Oh! That is a fish hawk or osprey." She repeated the words "fish hawk", was happy with it, stopped asking me any more question, and left me alone to continue my effort to take the pictures of this beautiful fish hawk in action.

Firehole Falls drops 40 feet in the narrow Firehole Canyon in Yellowstone National Park as seen from the Firehole Canyon Drive which is a side road that takes sightseers past 800-foot thick lava flows.

Some tourists are using telescope or binocular to look at a wolf very far away on the river bank of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park.

Kepler Cascades on Firehole River about one mile south of the Old Faithful geyser.

A bald eagle at the grassy meadows along Fountain Flat Drive that follows along the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.

"We saw several Bald Eagles near the West entrance to Yellowstone Park. Leaving the town of West Yellowstone driving east along the river we saw Bald Eagles, among other things, every day this last summer. We spent three weeks in the park and never failed to see at least one Eagle. Each sighting caused an "Eagle jam" as everyone stopped to experience these magnificent creatures." - Courtesy of Gerry Bob and Shari Graves

Golden Gate about 3 miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs in northern part of Yellowstone National Park.

A young male elk with small antlers, in addition to bisons and moose, came out at dusk on the roadside when we just finished day's sightseeing and were on our way to a hotel in Gardiner, Montana just outside of the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

In the morning of Sunday, August 31, 2008, I saw a squirrel with a pine cone in its mouth just outside of our hotel busily running back and forth collecting pine cones and storing them in a hole in the ground, probably trying to store enough food to prepare for the long and severe winter in Yellowstone area. The hotel, Flagg Ranch, is about half way between Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. I often see several squirrels in my backyard at home and many other squirrels in New Jersey. But I have never seen such a busy squirrel working so hard to prepare for the winter. Therefore, I took short movie clips of this busy squirrel, combining them and upload it to the YouTube website at:

Scenery along Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway (i.e., US Highway 14-16-20) which skirts the Buffalo Bill Reservoir and goes through the scenic Wapiti Valley between Cody, Wyoming and East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. President Theodore Roosevelt called this the 50 most beautiful miles in America.

More scenery along Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway

A corner of Buffalo Bill Reservoir near the dam along the scenic Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway.

Two more views along Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway in Wapiti Valley on a raining day. On September 1, 2008 (still in the summer season), it was snowing heavily mixed with hailstones in Yellowstone National Park at elevation of 8,000 feet. We left Yellowstone and drove along Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway towards Cody. The heavy snow turned into heavy rain when we descent down to Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway at elevation of about 6,000 to 5,000 feet.

On the following day on September 2, 2008, the weather cleared up and we drove east from Cody, Wyoming to Rapid City, South Dakota. We saw beautiful scenery, many wild horses, a bull moose with huge rack of big antlers, and many antelopes along this route as described in my Travelogue web page at:

Many tourists were looking hard for a bear on a mountain slope in Yellowstone National Park on August 31, 2008. It was a bear jam - a traffic jam caused by bear-gazers.

People swimming and playing in a deep warm water pool between swift-flowing rapids on Firehole River warmed by the runoff from distant hot springs and geysers. The average water temperature here is about 80 degrees F. This is one of the few places in Yellowstone where swimming is openly allowed.

The river got its name from early trappers in the area, who believed that the steam rising from thermal vents was smoke from underground fires. They commonly referred to a small mountain valley like that in Yellowstone as a "hole," so the stream running through the valley came to be known as the Firehole River.

A park ranger was directing the traffic to control the bear jam that extended for miles on August 31, 2008 which was the Sunday of the Labor Day weekend with exceptionally large number of tourists.

Our 13-Day driving tour is a large loop starting and ending at Rapid City in South Dakota, USA. The sequence of Point of Interest on this large tour loop is the following:

Rapid City in South Dakota --------> Centered at Rapid City for 3 days and toured Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Crazy Horse Memorial, Badland National Park (NP), needle mountains and wildlife in Custer State Park, Wind Cave NP, and Jewel Cave National Monument --------> Roosevelt NP South Unit in North Dakota ---------> Roosevelt NP North Unit in North Dakota --------> Drove on I-94 to go west along Yellowstone River in Montana --------> Cody in Wyoming --------> Tour Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP in Wyoming for 4 Days ---------> Drove on Highway 14 to go East to see wild horses and touring Big Horn Mountain Range andDevil's Tower in Wyoming ---------> Rapid City in South Dakota

How I use information age technologies to enhance my enjoyment greatly of sightseeing large driving tour loop of thousands of miles and of one to two weeks in duration covering many Points of Interest is described on my web page at: